An Assistant in Autumn
by GundalianPrincessHikari
Summary: A few months after Pitch was defeated, Jack starts to question if he needs an assistant to help him on his job due to the other guardians having their helpers. Meanwhile, Pitch was saved from his nightmares by the Spirit of Samhain, Jackolan Turner. Will Jack discover Pitch's plot on revenge, or is there a new foe to be faced?


Prologue: Flames and Shadows

Within the shadow of the woods is the realm of the nightmare king. Some call this being the bogeyman or the shadow man, but his real name is Pitch Black. Once a hero in the Golden Age, he became the dark figure by being possessed by the fearlings; his special ability is create fear in the children's hearts and turn them into the creatures that engulfed his soul. He would have succeeded one Easter Sunday, but was stopped by the Guardians of Childhood. Using the power of dreams and wonder, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth fairy, and the Sandman saved the children's hopes and memories from the boogieman and his herd of nightmares. They also attained a new guardian in their group, the guardian of fun, Jack Frost.

Defeated by the guardians and not being feared by the children anymore, Pitch became surrounded by his nightmares, listening to a fear he did not want to hear, his own. As he battled every dark horse that attacked, the bogyman listened to a malicious voice that taunted his every move.

"You have failed Pitch Black," the voice whispered to the nightmare king, "How can you protect that girl, when you can't protect yourself?" its laugh echoed throughout every dark corner of Pitch's world, making the herd become more aggressive and tried trampling their creator.

"You will not touch her!" Pitch formed his giant scythe and started to slice the mares as they came closer. The Shadow King was losing his strength from the struggle "I am still your king, obey me!"

The nightmares continued their attack on the bogyman; Pitch lost his footing and fell to the ground. When he looked up, he saw that he was surrounded by the herd and the voice echoes in his ears. "You're doing it again Pitch," a malicious laugh can be heard, "You try to suppress me, control me, yet here you are, failing your promise." The nightmares created noise as though they were agitated and impatiently waiting for the signal to kill the bogyman. "It is my time to rein your kingdom of darkness and take the girl by my side."

"No!" Pitched covered his ears to stop the ringing of the voice in his head; he closed his eyes and shook his head, "I won't let that happen!"

"Goodbye Nightmare King," the dark herd began their strike at the bogyman, "I'll tell her about your desperate struggle." the laughter was the only thing Pitch heard.

Before the mares could strike the shadow man, a ball of fire hit and destroyed the mare closest to him. The nightmares began to scatter and multiple flares of light disintegrated each one of the dark creatures. The owner of the flame sphere and flares approached the feared bogyman that was still holding his ears, and gently touched him. The shadow man flinched, but when he opened his eyes he saw that the owner was a teenage girl.

If Pitch was not sitting on the ground, the teen would have been half of his height. Like the bogyman, she wore a black vest, which covered her behind, and had a grey Victorian style lace top. She also had tight black pants which could also be leggings. The only bright color that appeared on her black and grey was her red. The teenager wore a red scarf that covered her neck, a short plaid skirt, and knee length chucks that zipped on the sides. She also had red zippers that were on the thighs of her pants. When the girl looked at Pitch, she smiled and her emerald eyes gleamed luminously; her red orange locks waved around her pale freckled face as she shook her head.

"Good grief you langoof." the girl laughed as she helped the nightmare king to his feet. "I leave to study more things that the kids would be afraid of, and here you are losing control of those shadows of yours." She shook her head again and sighed at Pitch. "Honestly, is this how you show that you're the bogyman?"

Pitch looked around and saw that the nightmares disappeared. He turned to the girl, "Jackolan, what are you doing here?" He noticed that part of her hair was shaved off "What happened to your head?"

Jackolan flipped her hair and showed her style, which half of her left side was shaved off. "It's called an undercut, the new fashion trend in this century." She poised herself on the globe where lights have been lit on the continents, "So, what do you think?"

The bogyman shook his head and turned to the clock. The clock said that it was seven a.m. October 1st. "You should be in California by now." he sighed and looked at the girl.

"California has a different climate than the neighboring states." she stated as she spun around the globe. "So I thought that I should stay here and chill out with you."

"Chill out?" Pitch scoffed at the word; his mind was too busy calculating the days that past since that Easter Sunday. "What does that even mean?" he swatted away the word as though it was a fly, "Never mind, you need to follow the schedule and go to California."

"But it's so boring there." she protested at him. Jackolan spun the globe again, jumped off, and stood in front of the nightmare king. Looking straight at his golden eyes, the teen smiled coyly, "Haven't you heard of a small vacation?" She saw remains of a nightmare, picked up the dust and showed the bogyman the sand. "Besides, you look like you need a lot of help from what I've seen." as the last grain of sand fell from her gloved hands, she noticed that some of his bangs fell on his face. "So what do you say?" she asked as she brushed the hair away from his cheek.

Pitch pushed the girl's hand aside and turned away from her. "Jackolan, you know that it is important to be in California around this time due to-"

"Lack of believers in us, I know that." The girl interrupted him and pointed to North America, "But it doesn't help when kids today aren't afraid of things like they used to be,"

"Are not," the shadow man corrected her, "Saying aren't in that sentence makes you sound like a sea lion."

Jackolan began to imitate a sea lion, but stopped by Pitch's cold gaze. The girl sighed and looked around the place that the bogyman called home. It was dark everywhere, cages hung above her and the air was as cold as winter nights. She looked at the walls which had stair cases that end at an edge of a cliff, began in the dark waters, and even stopped to another wall; it was a labyrinth that confused the mind. The only light source in that realm was the item that was the only proof that there were still believers out there, the globe.

The teen knew about the other light source that could brighten the dark world that she lived in, but she also knew that it was also a threat. She was told on how it chose its comrades to defeat the bogyman and his goal to be believed in, and the teen was also told that if this light found her, she would be disintegrated by it. That beam of light was the moon, yet she always questioned why it despised creatures like her, like her mentor, like any other being of the night. Jackolan turned to Pitch, covered her buzz cut, and looked at the closest piece of rubble next to her foot.

"I just," the teen began her statement as she fidgeted with one of her orange locks, "I wanted to... Enjoy your company for a week, and then go to California...That's all."

The bogyman turned to the teen and saw how she looked at the ground as though she was being punished. He felt an urge to say yes out of pity for her, yet there was also the presence of the voice that wanted to take her from him. If the owner of that voice took Jackolan, then his plan to be feared by the children on Halloween would be ruined. Irritated by the conflict he sighed. "Fine, but only for a week and not another day understand?"

The teenager jumped for joy and wanted to hug Pitch, but she stopped herself due to knowing her place in line. Jackolan brushed off her clothes as though there was some lint on them, stood professionally, and curtsied. "Thank you master," when she looked up at him, she saw that the shadow king was not paying any mind to her bow. Without a moment to hesitate, she hugged Pitch and let him go after ten seconds. "I'll be outside!" She giggled as she ran back to the place she entered from, leaving a shocked bogyman watch her leave.

When he saw no sight of the girl, Pitch shook his head. "Honestly, why do you let that child get to you?" He chuckled as he walked through his world of darkness. He knew that even though she was his underling, she was more special than his nightmares due to her ability to control fire. He smiled thinking about her reaction to their agreement, "Doesn't she know that half a week will go by like a day?" another chuckled was about to escape his throat, but was stopped as the bogyman saw his own shadow. Hearing a faint laugh from a distance, Pitch looked around his home and began his statement to the voice. "I'll make sure you stay where you belong," He said to his shadow, "You'll never have Jackolan, never."

As the nightmare king walked away from his shadow, he never noticed that it stayed on the wall and watched his owner leave it behind. The shadow smiled maliciously, transformed into another shape, and stepped out of the wall. Its figure was a haze as though he was only smoke, and the only distinct feature of it was that it wore a mask that had wings on the sides. His voice became a combination of pitch and the voice. "Keep telling yourself that oh nightmare king," it whispered as the haze started to merge into the shadows, "but remember this, a king does not stay on his throne forever." it chuckled, "then there will be a new bringer of nightmares." The head of the haze disappeared into the dark depths of the shadows, and leaves only the emptiness and silence of the realm that Pitch called home.


End file.
